Goal

Humans flourish through cooperation. Our brains are equipped with an impressive array of tools that allow us to do so: ability to "read" another person's state of mind or empathy. Yet, we do not understand these tools from a biological point of view.
Of particular interest for neuroscientists - like myself - is oxytocin: a chemical produced by our brains that affects social behaviour. However, research struggled with mixed findings and failed replications. Newer theories are more refined, and the field is slowly coming out of the trough in the hype cycle. My idea is to give the field a necessary push to reject unproductive ideas and consolidate what we know in order to pave the way forward. I want to do this through a large-scale study on human cooperation, from the behavioural and genetic perspective. I will use this study as a springboard for the establishment of international, collaborative network dedicated to robust – and open – science of socialness. Understanding the biology of cooperation and social behaviour will bring us closer to treat social impairments in neuropsychiatric conditions, such as autism or schizophrenia – but understanding what drives us to cooperate has implications for society as a whole.

Opportunity

We still base our conclusions about oxytocin on studies with too few, not very diverse people – mostly white males. Genetic variability impacts how oxytocin modulates our behaviour, yet it is rarely added to the mix. I want to solve it by employing a "citizen science" approach, by conducting a largest-ever study on cooperation using a variety of economic games played by people at home and looking at the link between willingness to cooperate and genes related to oxytocin. This will be a steppingstone to establish a multi-national scientific collaboration on the topic, govern by open science ideals.

Roadblocks

The logistics of a large-scale studies are difficult, but not impossible – economic games that require cooperation from players can be conducted online, and solutions for that already exist. With enough investment, it is possible to collect genetic data via saliva-collection kits distributed to participants by email. The biggest challenge will be the endgame of this idea – establishing an international collaboration network and providing a necessary infrastructure to allow a free flow of ideas, large amounts of data, and people.

Breakthroughs Needed

Creating an international collaborative network has its predecessors in massive replication projects, such as Many Labs – where laboratories from across the world came together to repeat psychological experiments from the past. However, such initiatives are very broad in terms of the range of studies topics. There is no equivalent of such initiative to address more specific questions in psychology or neuroscience, related to one neurochemical, such as oxytocin. Since this field might potentially lead to interventions that can alleviate untreated social impairments in various disorders, such focused, multinational effort is the way forward. It is especially today that we can see how quickly such approach can bring innovation – we are all witnessing it right now, when a large part of scientific body is working simultaneously on understanding the SARS-CoV-2. The first part of my idea – conducting a large study on human cooperation using online studies and large-scale collection of genetic material – is a way to kickstart the collaboration. My hope is to use the study to make first connections, that will snowball into a larger network after we get the first results and there will be a pressing need to investigate them further in laboratories.

Key Indicators of Success

Year 3
A success is very clearly defined: the massive, international study on human collaboration and what role oxytocin-related genes play in determining individual's collaborative behaviour is finalised.
Year 5
Number of collaborations and assessment of further interest will be an indicator of success – as well as completion of infrastructure to share the data.
Year 10
The success in year 10 means that our collaborative platform is generating new research, providing training and employment opportunities for new scholars, and a core body of evidence relating to oxytocin in particular, and biological basis of cooperation in general, is established.

Additional Information

The main task that I am intending to use in the initial, large-scale study is the Prisoner's Dilemma – one of the most recognised games that belong to the family of economic games that allow us to peek into human collaboration and decision making. While playing this game, participants might employ different strategies to earn money – these include unconditional cooperation, unconditional defection, or variations of the tit-for-tat, where the players makes his decision based on the decisions of the other player. Due to the game's simplicity – but also for its potential in unraveling mechanisms behind human cooperation – it has been widely used in psychological research, including oxytocin. As such, this game can be easily deployed as an online game to multiple players scattered around the globe. This will be the behavioural part of the experiment. But how to assess the role of oxytocin in an online study? Indeed, previous research have used intranasal sprays that participants use to inhale oxytocin prior to completing the tasks, including prisoner's dilemma. However, oxytocin is naturally produced by our bodies, and binds to receptors scattered across peripheral and central nervous system. Individual differences in terms of how the oxytocin receptor gene is expressed or varied appears to influence aspects of social behaviour and other mental states – but so far, not a single, large study has been conducted along a behavioural task that can tap into mechanisms behind human cooperation. Fortunately, while challenging, it is possible to provide remote participants with saliva collection kits, that are non-invasive, easy to use, and can be simply sent back, by mail, to the researchers.
In this idea proposal, I make allusions to a large body of research and works that inspired this idea – after all, I can only stand on the shoulders of giants, but not be one myself.
There are two theories of oxytocin that are changing the way we conduct research in this area for the better. The social salience hypothesis of oxytocin tries to consolidate – at first contradictory – findings that show the pro-social effects of oxytocin, but also anti-social. The newest account – the allostasis theory of oxytocin poses that this neuropeptide has a more general, regulatory function, of which modulation of social behaviour is its manifestation, albeit not the only one. Stronger theories allow to make better predictions, and stronger methodologies will allow to test them rigorously. The only element missing at the moment is a large-scale, collaborative effort that will help to advance the field in a meaningful direction.

References
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2020.03.008
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41380-020-00864-7
https://doi.org/10.1111/gbb.12555
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2004.04.015
https://doi.org/10.1017/S0007087400031332

Collaborators (and their expertise):
Carlotta Cogoni (prisoner's dillema, social neuroscience and oxytocin)
Hugo Ferreira (Engineering and technologies)
Patrícia Figueiredo (brain function in various disorders, including schizophrenia)
Diana Prata (oxytocin and genetics)
James RiIlling (prisoner's dilemma)